Empirical investigation of topological and weighted properties of a bus transport network from China

Many bus transport networks(BTNs) have evolved into directed networks. A new representation model for BTNs is proposed, called directed-space P. The bus transport network of Harbin(BTN-H) is described as a directed and weighted complex network by the proposed representation model and by giving each node weights. The topological and weighted properties are revealed in detail. In-degree and out-degree distributions, in-weight and out-weight distributions are presented as an exponential law, respectively. There is a strong relation between in-weight and in-degree(also between out-weight and out-degree), which can be fitted by a power function. Degree–degree and weight–weight correlations are investigated to reveal that BTN-H has a disassortative behavior as the nodes have relatively high degree(or weight). The disparity distributions of out-degree and in-degree follow an approximate power-law. Besides, the node degree shows a near linear increase with the number of routes that connect to the corresponding station. These properties revealed in this paper can help public transport planners to analyze the status quo of the BTN in nature.     

Pair correlations in scale-free networks

Correlation between nodes is found to be a common and important property in many complex networks. Here we investigate degree correlations of the Barabasi－Albert (BA) scale-free model with both analytical results and simulations, and find two neighbouring regions, a disassortative one for low degrees and a neutral one for high degrees. The average degree of the neighbours of a randomly picked node is expected to diverge in the limit of infinite network size. As a generalization of the concept of correlation, we also study the correlations of other scalar properties, including age and clustering coefficient. Finally we propose a correlation measurement in bipartite networks.     

Controlling disease spread on networks with feedback mechanism

Many real-world networks have the ability to adapt themselves in response to the state of their nodes. This paper studies controlling disease spread on network with feedback mechanism, where the susceptible nodes are able to avoid contact with the infected ones by cutting their connections with probability when the density of infected nodes reaches a certain value in the network. Such feedback mechanism considers the networks' own adaptivity and the cost of immunization. The dynamical equations about immunization with feedback mechanism are solved and theoretical predictions are in agreement with the results of large scale simulations. It shows that when the lethality $\alpha$ increases, the prevalence decreases more greatly with the same immunization $g$. That is, with the same cost, a better controlling result can be obtained. This approach offers an effective and practical policy to control disease spread, and also may be relevant to other similar networks.     

Co-evolution of the brand effect and competitiveness in evolving networks

The principle that ‘the brand effect is attractive’ underlies the preferential attachment. Here we show that the brand effect is just one dimension of attractiveness. Another dimension is competitiveness. We firstly introduce a general framework that allows us to investigate the competitive aspect of real networks, instead of simply preferring popular nodes. Our model accurately describes the evolution of social and technological networks. The phenomenon that more competitive nodes become richer can help us to understand the evolution of many competitive systems in nature and society. In general,the paper provides an explicit analytical expression of degree distributions of the network. In particular, the model yields a nontrivial time evolution of nodes’ properties and the scale-free behavior with exponents depending on the microscopic parameters characterizing the competition rules. Secondly, through theoretical analyses and numerical simulations, we reveal that our model has not only the universality for the homogeneous weighted network, but also the character for the heterogeneous weighted network. Thirdly, we also develop a model based on the profit-driven mechanism. It can better describe the observed phenomenon in enterprise cooperation networks. We show that the standard preferential attachment,the growing random graph, the initial attractiveness model, the fitness model, and weighted networks can all be seen as degenerate cases of our model.     

Mirror nodes in growing random networks

In this article, we consider mirror nodes, which are widely used to reduce local burden, and present two models that are practical for the Internet and probably some other networks. One model introduces an upper limit to the number of links that a node can have, beyond which the node will share the total links with a newly introduced one. Similarly, in the second model, if the number of links exceeds a limit, a new node will be introduced. Unlike the first model, the new node shares with the old one the chance of receiving new links but not the existing links. These models are analytically treated, and from the degree distribution, we can see that the number of nodes with medium links (half the upper limit) increases at the expense of the loss of highly connected nodes. By reducing the burden, this may improve the robustness of the networks.     

Hierarchy property of traffic networks

The flourishing complex network theory has aroused increasing interest in studying the properties of real-world networks. Based on the traffic network of Chang--Zhu--Tan urban agglomeration in central China, some basic network topological characteristics were computed with data collected from local traffic maps, which showed that the traffic networks were small-world networks with strong resilience against failure; more importantly, the investigations of assortativity coefficient and average nearest-neighbour degree implied the disassortativity of the traffic networks. Since traffic network hierarchy as an important basic property has been neither studied intensively nor proved quantitatively, the authors are inspired to analyse traffic network hierarchy with disassortativity and to finely characterize hierarchy in the traffic networks by using the n-degree--n-clustering coefficient relationship. Through numerical results and analyses an exciting conclusion is drawn that the traffic networks exhibit a significant hierarchy, that is, the traffic networks are proved to be hierarchically organized. The result provides important information and theoretical groundwork for optimal transport planning.     

A Method to Design Synthetic Cell-Cycle Networks

The interactions among proteins, DNA and RNA in an organism form elaborate cell-cycle networks which govern cell growth and proliferation. Understanding the common structure of cell-cycle networks will be of great benefit to science research. Here, inspired by the importance of the cell-cycle regulatory network of yeast which has been studied intensively, we focus on small networks with 11 nodes, equivalent to that of the cell-cycle regulatory network used by Li et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101（2004）4781] Using a Boolean model, we study the correlation between structure and function, and a possible common structure. It is found that cascade-like networks with a great number of interactions between nodes are stable. Based on these findings, we are able to construct synthetic networks that have the same functions as the cell-cycle regulatory network.     

Properties of asymmetrically evolved community networks

This paper studies a simple asymmetrically evolved community network with a combination of preferential attachment and random properties. An important issue about community networks is to discover the different utility increments of two nodes, where the utility is introduced to investigate the asymmetrical effect of connecting two nodes. On the other hand, the connection of two nodes in community networks can be classified as two nodes belonging to the same or to different communities. The simulation results show that the model can reproduce a power-law utility distribution P(u)～u^-σ, σ = 2 + 1/p, which can be obtained by using mean-field approximation methods. Furthermore, the model exhibits exponential behaviour with respect to small values of a parameter denoting the random effect in our model at the low-utility region and a power-law feature with respect to big values of this parameter at the high-utility region, which is in good agreement with theoretical analysis. This kind of community network can reproduce a unique utility distribution by theoretical and numerical analysis.     

Evaluating the AS-level Internet models:beyond topological characteristics

A surge number of models has been proposed to model the Internet in the past decades.However,the issue on which models are better to model the Internet has still remained a problem.By analysing the evolving dynamics of the Internet,we suggest that at the autonomous system (AS) level,a suitable Internet model,should at least be heterogeneous and have a linearly growing mechanism.More importantly,we show that the roles of topological characteristics in evaluating and differentiating Internet models are apparently over-estimated from an engineering perspective.Also,we find that an assortative network is not necessarily more robust than a disassortative network and that a smaller average shortest path length does not necessarily mean a higher robustness,which is different from the previous observations.Our analytic results are helpful not only for the Internet,but also for other general complex networks.     

Adaptive Synchronization between Two Different Complex Networks with Time-Varying Delay Coupling

A new general network model for two complex networks with time-varying delay coupling is presented. Then we investigate its synchronization phenomena. The two complex networks of the model differ in dynamic nodes, the number of nodes and the coupling connections. By using adaptive controllers, a synchronization criterion is derived. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the obtained synchronization criterion. This study may widen the application range of synchronization, such as in chaotic secure communication.     

Assortative mixing in networks

A network is said to show assortative mixing if the nodes in the network that have many connections tend to be connected to other nodes with many connections. Here we measure mixing patterns in a variety of networks and find that social networks are mostly assortatively mixed, but that technological and biological networks tend to be disassortative. We propose a model of an assortatively mixed network, which we study both analytically and numerically. Within this model we find that networks percolate more easily if they are assortative and that they are also more robust to vertex removal.     

蛋白质相互作用网络特征的理论再现

无标度性、小世界性、功能模块结构及度负关联性是大量生物网络共同的特征. 为了理解生物网络无标度性、小世界性和度负关联性的形成机制, 研究者已经提出了各种各样基于复制和变异的网络增长模型. 在本文中,我们从生物学的角度通过引入偏爱小复制原则及变异和非均匀的异源二聚作用构建了一个简单的蛋白质相互作用网络演化模型.数值模拟结果表明,该演化模型几乎可以再现现在实测结果所公认的蛋白质相互作用网络的性质：无标度性、小世界性、度负关联性和功能模块结构. 我们的演化模型对理解蛋白质相互作用网络演化过程中的可能机制提供了一定的帮助. 关键词： 蛋白质相互作用网络 偏爱小 非均匀的异源二聚作用 功能模块结构     

How divergence mechanisms influence disassortative mixing property in biology

The duplication–divergence mechanism of network growth has been widely investigated, especially in gene and protein networks. Both the duplication and divergence have a key role in biological network evolution. However, the relative roles of these mechanisms in the influence of disassortative property in protein interaction networks remain to be clarified. It has been shown that duplication can indeed make protein networks evolve towards disassortative networks. To make the relationship between the disassortative property and the duplication–divergence mechanism more clear, we further discuss how the divergence mechanism influences the disassortative property. We tested four different divergence mechanisms, i.e., node deletion, edge deletion, edge addition, and edge rewiring to study their effects on disassortative property. Our study highlights the crucial roles of different divergence evolution mechanisms.     

Fractality and degree correlations in scale-free networks

Fractal scale-free networks are empirically known to exhibit disassortative degree mixing. It is, however, not obvious whether a negative degree correlation between nearest neighbor nodes makes a scale-free network fractal. Here we examine the possibility that disassortativity in complex networks is the origin of fractality. To this end, maximally disassortative (MD) networks are prepared by rewiring edges while keeping the degree sequence of an initial uncorrelated scale-free network. We show that there are many MD networks with different topologies if the degree sequence is the same with that of the (u,v)-flower but most of them are not fractal. These results demonstrate that disassortativity does not cause the fractal property of networks. In addition, we suggest that fractality of scale-free networks requires a long-range repulsive correlation, in the sense of the shortest path distance, in similar degrees.     

度关联无标度网络上的有倾向随机行走

有倾向随机行走是研究网络上数据包路由策略的有效方法. 由于许多真实技术网络包括互联网都具有负的度关联特征, 因此本文研究这种网络上的有倾向随机行走性质. 研究表明: 在负关联网络上粒子可以在连接度较大的节点上均匀分布, 而连接度小的节点上粒子较少; 负关联网络上随机行走的速度比非关联网络更快; 找到了负关联网络上的最佳倾向性系数, 在此情况下负关联网络上随机行走的速度远快于非关联网络. 负关联网络既可以利用度小的节点容纳粒子, 又可以利用度大的节点快速传输, 这是负关联网络上高行走效率产生的机制.     

Modelling Human Cortical Network in Real Brain Space

Highly specific structural organization is of great significance in the topology of cortical networks. We introduce a human cortical network model, taking the specific cortical structure into account, in which nodes are brain sites placed in the actual positions of cerebral cortex and the establishment of edges depends on the spatial path length rather than the linear distance. The resulting network exhibits the essential features of cortical connectivity, properties of small-world networks and multiple clusters structure. Additionally, assortative mixing is also found in this model. All of these findings may be attributed to the specific cortical architecture.     

An empirical study of Chinese language networks

Chinese is spoken by the largest number of people in the world, and it is regarded as one of the most important languages. In this paper, we explore the statistical properties of Chinese language networks (CLNs) within the framework of complex network theory. Based on one of the largest Chinese corpora, i.e. People’s Daily Corpus, we construct two networks (CLN1 and CLN2) from two different respects, with Chinese words as nodes. In CLN1, a link between two nodes exists if they appear next to each other in at least one sentence; in CLN2, a link represents that two nodes appear simultaneously in a sentence. We show that both networks exhibit small-world effect, scale-free structure, hierarchical organization and disassortative mixing. These results indicate that in many topological aspects Chinese language shapes complex networks with organizing principles similar to other previously studied language systems, which shows that different languages may have some common characteristics in their evolution processes. We believe that our research may shed some new light into the Chinese language and find some potentially significant implications.     

Effects of degree correlation on the controllability of networks

In this paper, we investigate the effects of degree correlation on the controllability of undirected networks with different degree-mixing patterns based on simulation analysis. Considering random pinning, max-degree pinning and mix-degree pinning, some relevance factors on controllability such as the control gain and the number of pinned nodes are discussed in detail. It is found that disassortative mixing enhances the network controllability contrast to assortative mixing, to which the network controllability is sensible. Furthermore, too large or too low value of the feedback gain can reduce the controllability. From the viewpoint of practical application, mix-degree pinning strategy is suggested in assortative network, while in disassortative network, max-degree pinning scheme is better than random pinning.     

Choosing effective controlled nodes for scale-free network synchronization

Previous studies concerning pinning control of complex-network synchronization have very often demonstrated that in an unweighted symmetrical scale-free network, controlling the high-degree nodes is more efficient than controlling randomly chosen ones; due to the heterogeneity of the node-degree or edge-connection distribution of the scale-free network, small-degree nodes have relatively high probabilities of being chosen at random but their control has less influence on the other nodes through the network. This raises the question of whether or not controlling the high-degree nodes is always better than controlling the small ones in scale-free networks. Our answer to this is yes and no. In this study, we carry out extensive numerical simulations to show that in an unweighted symmetrical Barabasi-Albert scale-free network, when the portion of controlled nodes is relatively large, controlling the small nodes becomes better than controlling the big nodes and controlling randomly chosen nodes has approximately the same effect as controlling the big ones. However, we also show that for normalized weighted scale-free networks, controlling the big nodes is in fact always better than controlling the small ones.